Big Bull, Rene Marie, Billy Taylor, and more this week
Remember back in March when Fight the Big Bull told us they would be playing three nights of live recording sessions at Balliceaux in celebration of their new album? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for these three days to get here for quite some time now. And it’s here! Monday, Tuesday, […]
Remember back in March when Fight the Big Bull told us they would be playing three nights of live recording sessions at Balliceaux in celebration of their new album? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for these three days to get here for quite some time now. And it’s here!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; May 10, 11, and 12. Get there and be a part of the documentation. They’ll also have limited edition Fight the Big Bull Live at Balliceaux t-shirts for sale. (Word is there’s only 15 of them)
To add to this week’s excitement, the highly anticipated return of vocalist and native Virginian Rene Marie (who grew up in Roanoke and got her career started in Richmond in 1998) is on Tuesday night, presented by Richmond Jazz Society at Capital Ale House’s Downtown Music Hall.
Looking ahead to Friday, Dr. Billy Taylor is playing at his alma mater, VSU in Petersburg.
As always, check the calendar for the complete listings of live jazz.
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Transcription from an interview with Billy Taylor last week….
“I met Thelonius Monk when I was on vacation, I was still a student. At one point the World’s Fair was taking place and one of my idols was Teddy Wilson, I really loved his touch on the piano and so much about what he did. So I asked my father if he would send me money to hear Ted Wilson with a big band- he never played with a big band. He said ok, under the idea that I wouldn’t be wandering around, no one knows where you are, you check in with a friend of mind who manages a nightclub in Harlem. So I checked in with my father’s friend and he said, oh your dad says you play the piano, and he took me back to the back room where some people were listening to a trio, and he asked the piano player to get up and then I played my favorite tune,”Lullaby in Rhythm”, and I noticed the piano player was looking at me kind of funny. I know he didn’t know me, but I wondered why he was giving me such a funny look because I knew I was playing well. I played with dance bands.
“I played, people applauded and I got ready to go and he stopped me. He said that was very nice, I have a couple of friends who would like to hear you play. So he took me upstairs on 138th st and 7th avenue, right upstairs was a whole bunch of brownstones, he knocked on the door. He said I got a piano player here for you guys. I was young, I should have known he was leading me into the lion’s den I go in and sure enough I am in the house of Fats Waller’s mentor, James P Johnson, and I don’t know this. I don’t know the name of the guy who took me. He said play something kid. Incidentally, I didn’t know that he wrote “Lullaby” [Clarence Proffit] – he probably thought I was some nervy kid coming into his gig to play his tune and showing off. That’s what the funny look was about. I had played about 16 bars and elderly gentlemen walked across the room and said let me play a little-it was Willie the Lion Smith. I didn’t know these guys I had heard their records. This guy had a left hand that was outstanding. Turned out everyone in the room was a musician. There was a guy there who was about my age, who sat down to play and he played closer to what I was trying to do- he had been listening to Art Tatum, and he started with something that was Tatumesque in harmonic structure. As soon as he started Willie the Lion said, “Monk, we already have an Art Tatum so do your own thing.
That was how I met Thelonious Monk”
Whoa, thanks for posting that. I assume the full story will be printed this week?
Yes.